WPA LIBRARY PROJECTS
IN INDIANA
By Marcia Caudell, Deborah Jones,
Ben Jessup, & Marti Reeser
HISTORY OF THE WPA
From its birth in 1935 until its death in 1943, the
WPA (the common acronym for the Works Progress
Administration and, after 1939, the renamed Work
Projects Administration) hired a total of 14,000,000
Americans for a wide variety of public works projects.
This massive army of WPA employees and veterans
represented more than one in ten of the 132,000,000
Americans counted by the 1940 census. Some economists argued that a cutback in WPA hiring triggered a
downturn in the national economy in 1937. Of all the
initiatives of the Roosevelt Administration, only Social
Security surpassed WPA in terms of size and scope.
In addition to involving millions of lives across the
nation, both the WPA and Social Security required a
state and federal partnership. Washington and each of
the forty-eight states split the expense for these programs. Unlike the federally directed Social Security
pension system, however, state governments ran their
own WPA projects. The Federal authorities enjoyed
final authority only in selecting the destinations of the
grants. State officials, often acting under local pressure,
made the funding proposals.
The WPA came to life as a federal initiative, albeit
one which incorporated significant state involvement,
direction, and cooperation. The WPA followed by two
years the New Deal’s initial efforts to ease unemployment which had begun in 1933 under the Federal
Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) when, during
his first hundred days in office, Roosevelt signed
legislation aimed at reviving the American economy.
He directed much of this legislative effort, which was
intended to provide a “New Deal for the American
people,” toward unemployment relief. The Civilian
Conservation Corps (CCC) hired unemployed young
men to work on federal land; the National Youth
Administration (NYA) provided part-time jobs to high
school and college students; and the Public Works
Administration (PWA) hired private contractors to
construct roads and public buildings.
The WPA combined the idea of tax-funded employment with the work of the Federal Emergency Relief
Administration (FERA). FERA granted money directly to
the states to help cover the escalating costs of caring for
Indiana Libraries, Volume 20 Number 1
destitute citizens or, in the terminology of the day,
“poor relief.” The WPA continued Washington’s involvement in this traditionally local responsibility, but
substituted public work as an alternative to direct relief
payments.
The majority of WPA employees worked at enterprises such as construction of schools, government
buildings, and roads that were usually considered part
of the private sector domain. The decentralized nature
of this agency, however, allowed the WPA to spend tax
money in unprecedented ways: for example, the WPA
hired actors and directors for a theater program, and
many visual artists won commissions for paintings,
statues and murals. This flexibility allowed even the
traditional beneficiaries of tax money, such as libraries,
to use resources in different ways.
THE NATIONAL WPA LIBRARY ASSISTANCE
PROGRAM
In his 1942 published dissertation Library Extension
under the WPA: An Appraisal of an Experiment in
Federal Aid, Edward Barrett Stanford points out that
prior to the Depression years, not only aid to the poor
and unemployed, but also support for libraries were
considered to be local and state responsibilities,
beyond the purview of the federal government. As the
crisis of the early 1930’s deepened, however, it became
increasingly clear that the need for relief was overwhelming the limited resources of states and localities
and that the federal government would be forced to
intervene in some capacity. It was this intervention, this
massive effort to create work for the nation’s unemployed that resulted indirectly in the first federal aid to
libraries.
In 1933 the precursors of the WPA, the Federal
Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and the Public
Works Administration (PWA) made federal financing
available for state and local projects by making grants
directly to the states, over which the states had complete control. At this point, the federal government had
no responsibility for project operation at the national
level. Corrington Gill, Assistant Administrator of FERA,
the CWA, and the WPA criticized the results of this
initial effort in work relief in 1937:
21
“ . . .the local work relief activities, financed by FERA,
state, and local funds, left much to be desired. The
projects were frequently of little value, the work
provided was almost entirely unskilled manual work,
supervisory personnel and materials were inadequate,
earnings were meager, and efficiency was generally
low.”
In his dissertation, Stanford goes on to summarize
the quality and condition of library projects during this
period and to point out that despite their deficiencies,
they provided a good foundation of experience on
which to base the more ambitious and complex federally supported library projects which were to follow
under the WPA:
“The caliber of library projects before 1935 reflected the conditions under which they came into
existence. Neither relief authorities nor librarians were
ready with carefully thought-out programs when
federal relief was begun on a nation-wide scale in
1933. Hence it is not surprising that many of the first
projects were hastily conceived under-takings of a
more or less “busy work” character.
However, the first work relief projects did serve
several valuable purposes. They provided muchneeded assistance to libraries at a time when libraries
generally were suffering from greatly decreased budgets and increased service demands. They demonstrated the efficacy of library work as a suitable type of
project activity for women and white collar workers.
They brought to light numerous weaknesses that could
be avoided in subsequent endeavors. They revealed the
need for planning, professional supervision, and
adequate book collections as a basis for developing
library projects of permanent worth. Finally, they
helped to arouse groups of citizens to a new understanding of the role of library service in community life
– an important factor contributing to the success of
state-wide library demonstrations under the WPA
today.”
In 1935, the WPA created a wider, more systematic,
and more ambitious national work relief program
which gave the federal government more direct control
over the design and operation of state and national
work relief projects. The Works Progress Administration
(WPA) and the National Youth Administration (NYA)
superseded FERA, and until 1942 provided the channel
and structure for federal aid to libraries.
Under limitations of WPA guidelines, federal
money and federally funded workers could not be
used to provide existing library services, but instead
had to be used in some manner to extend or expand
what has already being provided by established libraries.
Under these guidelines, Stanford categorizes four
22
different types of library projects that qualified for
library funding:
1. the construction and repair of library buildings;
2. the preparation and publication of various indexes,
and other reference books;
3. the provision of relief workers to assist established
libraries in expanding their services; and
4. the operation of demonstrations to further the
development of permanent library services in
formerly unserved areas.
While these projects followed in the rough tracks
of their predecessors for a time, their quality and
effectiveness improved steadily over time and with
experience.
By the time the WPA library assistance reached its
peak of operations in 1938, there were more than
38,000 relief workers employed full-time in libraries
nationwide. This was more workers than all of the
regular librarians and library assistants put together in
the United States had at that time. By June 1941,
$100,000,000 of federal money had been spent on
library service projects; 100,000,000 books had been
repaired; 260,000 books had been purchased; 150
counties had been helped to acquire bookmobiles, and
2664 local libraries were staffed with WPA personnel.
HISTORY OF THE INDIANA STATE LIBRARY
On June 28, 1816, the following resolution was
adopted by the Indiana legislature:
“That it be recommended to the general assembly
of the State of Indiana, to appropriate the money
voluntarily given by the citizens of Harrison county to
the State, to the purchase of books for a library for the
use of the legislature and other officers of government;
and that the said general assembly will, from time to
time, make such appropriations for the increase of said
library, as they may deem necessary.”
On February 11, 1825, the Indiana State Library was
established, one of the first six state libraries in the
nation.
The original concept of the State Library was as a
repository and reference institution for the use of
legislators and state officials; its first Librarian was the
Secretary of State. The Library became an independent
institution in 1841, and since that time a number of
missions have been added to meet new needs and
changing conditions. In 1903, by special act, the
lending service was extended to include the citizens of
the state, and in 1925 the library established a traveling
library service for communities that had no local library
service. Over 700 traveling libraries were on the roads
during 1930.
Indiana Libraries, Volume 20 Number 1
In 1913, the state established The Division of Indiana
History and Archives. Its material constitutes the state
historical collection and includes a very large collection of books, maps, pictures, and manuscripts. Its
manuscript collection has over 3 million items available
for use.
The State Library obtained the first Braille editions
for the visually impaired. Supported by federal and
state funds, it created the Indiana Regional Library for
the Blind and Physically Handicapped. Today the
Special Services Division of the Indiana State Library is
one of 56 regional libraries of the Library of Congress’s
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically
Handicapped (NLS). The Division’s objectives are to
make library materials and information available to the
residents of Indiana who are unable to read regular
print due to a visual or physical impairment.
In 1930, at the start of the Depression, there were
224 public libraries in the state. Fifteen of these
provided county-wide service. Every town with a
population of at least 4000 had public library service, as
did every county but one. Local governments, however, traditionally under-funded libraries, and the WPA
money could be used for projects that would otherwise
have gone unsupported. The federal government, in its
effort to end the depression and its subsequent unemployment, subsidized projects through the WPA which
were important to these libraries and to the future
course of libraries in Indiana and throughout the
nation.
LIBRARY PROJECTS IN INDIANA
Projects undertaken in Indiana included the
construction, renovation, and repair of library buildings; establishment of bookmobiles and other extension services; the creation of a genealogy division at
the State Library; translation of books into Braille and
other services for the blind; indexing and microfilming
of newspapers and other documents; compilation of
county histories; cataloging of uncataloged collections;
and bookbinding and book repair.
The significance of these projects ranged from
miniscule to mighty. However, simply the fact that the
Indiana State Library and other public libraries in
Indiana were able to obtain WPA funding to support
such efforts during this depressed time was important.
In many ways, it set up the framework for further
development of library services in the State of Indiana
in the decades to come.
THE STATE-WIDE LIBRARY PROJECT
While WPA projects were underway at the State
Library and other public libraries prior to 1938, it was
not until 1938 that the coordination of efforts led by
the State Library came to be known as the “State-Wide
Indiana Libraries, Volume 20 Number 1
Library Project.” The initial proposal for this project
stipulated that one person would serve as the state’s
technical advisor and that the state’s six WPA districts
would each have an assistant technical advisor. In each
instance, a professional librarian was to fill the role of
technical advisor. The state supervisor worked closely
with the Extension Division of the State Library and
oversaw the work of all the assistant supervisors. The
assistant supervisors in turn worked with the librarians
in their district to set up the projects. The main
purpose of the state-wide project was to extend library
services to previously unserved areas. The idea was that
these library demonstration projects would have a
permanent effect on the development of library service
in Indiana.
In July of 1938, the State-Wide Library Project was
operating in Indiana with an initial federal appropriation of $800,000. The Indiana State Library sponsored
the project in coordination with the local libraries
where the projects were taking place. By June of 1939,
390 individuals were employed in fifty-six different
operations. After the development of a state-wide
approach, the current projects superseded all earlier
efforts. Because of this approach, it was easier to
supervise projects and to produce more favorable
results.
By the end of 1939, forty-eight libraries were
receiving services from 232 WPA workers. Congress
mandated, however, that individuals who had been
employed for eighteen months or more were to be
subject to a thirty-day lay-off, a disruption that inevitably effected productivity. However, at the same time,
new assignments were underway which projected
employment of 402 individuals on different 58
projects.
By 1942, the previous four years of library work
had been an on-and-off pattern of fluctuation in the
state-wide library projects. Then, in the early part of
1942, the funds and the time originally allotted to the
project ran out. On March 7, an additional $103,975
became available to continue some projects, but due to
the war effort then underway, it was clear that the
national WPA resources would have to be funneled
toward defense initiatives. Because of this shift in
priorities, the remaining state-wide project efforts
understandably focused on the goal of victory, first by
assisting communities that were engaged in preparing
men and weapons for action abroad, then by supporting communities preparing for action at home.
To meet the needs in the first category, the state
wide library project worked with Fort Benjamin
Harrison and Baer Field, Charlestown, and Burns City.
It assisted those in the Kingsbury area, Vermillion
County, and in the proposed camp in Bartholomew
County. The statewide supervisor worked with librar-
23
ians in these areas to assess the needs and to coordinate with other agencies involved.
In the second category of wartime emphasis, the
state-wide library project sponsored the Victory Book
Campaign. This project was given the highest priority.
Wherever possible, workers were provided to all areas
to collect gift books. Beyond these operations, however, all other activities were curtailed. It was clear that
library projects had to be subordinated to the war
effort. Wayne McDermott, the former supervisor of the
State-Wide Library Project, explained that
“…libraries in wartime are even more important to
the community than in times of peace. We have witnessed the increased demands upon library service in
the emergency of the depression, and there is no
doubt that the emergency of the war will similarly
highlight its importance in the community.”
As the need to support the war efforts continued,
the focus of the State-Wide Library Project adjusted. In
the end, projects that provided extension services
through the maintenance of stations, branches, and
bookmobile service continued; projects such as indexing, cataloging, and book repair, however, were
dropped.
On February 1, 1942, all WPA projects in Indiana
were suspended by order of the President. Without a
doubt, however, the contributions of the WPA to
libraries and library service had been valuable:
“As a source of much valuable assistance during an
emergency period, when library budgets had been
drastically cut, the WPA enabled libraries not only to
carry on when the demands for their services increased
many fold but also to undertake many new enterprises
usually considered impossible even in normal times.
The projects in local history, library extension, work
for the blind, indexing, and many other works undertaken during the depression and prewar period be of
will permanent constructive value.”
On a small scale, a few of the projects started
during the war years operated through 1944.
INDIANA STATE LIBRARY AND LOCAL LIBRARY
PROJECTS
After seeing how the entire State-Wide Library
Project came together, it is as important to focus on its
impact on specific library services. As previously
mentioned, the following areas are highlighted:
genealogy and archives; county histories; newspapers
and indexes; service for the blind; building construction and repair; book repair; cataloging; bookmobiles
and other extension services; and clerical help.
GENEALOGY AND ARCHIVES
24
Indiana State Library WPA workers in coordination
with regular library staff performed the following tasks:
filing 12,000 bound volumes, 1,650 unbound filing
drawers, and over 1,000 more cartons of miscellaneous
documents. Overall, the workers in the archives
cleaned, mended, humidified, and pressed documents
that previously were in poor condition. In addition,
they constructed a filing system for documents that
were previously not filed. At the Vincennes Library,
WPA funds provided for the long-needed indexing of
hundreds of historic documents (manuscripts, papers,
and deeds) which had accumulated over the years.
COUNTY HISTORICAL INDEXES
WPA workers at the Indiana State Library compiled
(or were planning to compile) an index for each
county in the state. Such an index comprised the
names of people and firms found in any printed matter
held at the State Library on the particular county.
Sources for the county indexes included atlases,
pamphlets, and biographical publications.
The Indianapolis Public Library, for example, used
the additional help to finish a three-year effort to index
material related to Indiana and Indianapolis history,
including the standard references Indiana and
Indianans and Greater Indianapolis by Jacob Platt
Dunn.
These compilations would have far-reaching use
for both historical and genealogical research. When the
project ended in 1942, thirty-nine counties had been
indexed.
NEWSPAPER INDEXES
The Indiana State Library had hundreds of unbound newspaper volumes with loose or torn pages as
well as other types of damage. WPA workers mended,
re-cased, and re-lettered these volumes so that they
could again be used for research purposes. The total
number of volumes included 7,850 bound volumes and
1,880 unwrapped volumes. WPA workers compiled a
complete and comprehensive card index for all newspapers in the State Library. All prominent newspapers
in the state at that time, including those published at
Vincennes, New Albany, Madison, and Indianapolis
from 1846 to present were part of this project. The
subject index created for these newspapers saved
needless handling. In 1938 a display of the indexes and
other work produced by the WPA was set up at the
John Herron Art Institute.
In Gary, a Lake County historical room was created
at the public library. This project included a newspaper
index created with support from WPA funds. The index
(completed through 1936) included the names of every
person, building, organization, or activity that ever
Indiana Libraries, Volume 20 Number 1
appeared in print in county newspapers.
According to Philip Wayne McDermott, then
supervisor of the State-Wide Library project, the
indexing of Indiana newspapers was one of the most
important features of the project. The following is a list
of libraries that have such indexes of local newspapers:
Alexandria Public Library, Indiana University Library
(Bloomington), Crawfordsville Public Library, Gary
Public Library, Indiana State Library (Indianapolis),
Kokomo Public Library, Purdue University (West
Lafayette), Muncie Public Library, Morrisson-Reeves
Library (Richmond), and Fairbanks Memorial Library
(Terre Haute).
SERVICES FOR THE BLIND
The Indiana State Library first began operating
services for the blind in October of 1935. The original
plans called for transcribing ink-print books into
Braille. During this project, approximately 650 volumes
were transcribed, proof-read, shellacked, and bound.
An average of ten workers were employed in this
project. Because it was a highly specialized area, efforts
were made to not duplicate titles that were already
available in Braille. Many of the titles were non-fiction.
Since the Library of Congress did not supply books
in Braille for younger children, emphasis was placed
on creating books for this age group. Most Public
Affairs pamphlets were transcribed, as well as one
college textbook and several long poems for a Butler
University student. Statistics from the 1939 State Library
annual report indicate that WPA workers under staff
supervision completed the following in “mendery”:
new books plated, stamped, and pocketed (6,695);
volumes mended (11,611); volumes rebacked (8,512);
books collated and prepared for bindery (685); and
pamphlets put in binders (1,012).
The addition of this service saw an eager response
from individuals in Indiana as well as those in fifteen
other states. In addition to requests for materials
already in circulation, special requests were made for
reference materials by the Indiana School for the Blind,
the Board of Industrial Arts, and college students.
Patrons often wrote to the State Library in Braille, and
the project staff would read and correspond. As many
as 150 Braille books a day were charged out and
mailed. According to one annual report, 1,142 readers
availed themselves of this service.
In 1937, the Indiana State Library held an exhibit of
the work done in this area on the main floor of the
building. The exhibit was divided into three parts:
items translated into Braille (music, periodicals, deck of
playing cards, and Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the
Wind); a chronological development of blind writing
(Boston line type, Moon type, New York point, original
Indiana Libraries, Volume 20 Number 1
American Braille, and revised Braille); and the results of
WPA employees work with Braille (transcribing machine, proof reading and binding of Braille volumes,
illuminated pictures and a “talking book” machine).
Since the Indiana State Library served as a depository for the Library of Congress, WPA grants made it
possible to distribute more than 600 “talking book”
machines to borrowers on an indefinite loan plan. The
titles made for use on these machines come from the
master records at the Library of Congress, but up to that
point, only 188 titles had been produced; this number
was inadequate to meet the need, and it cost $3 to
produce each title. One note: the State Library did own
two copies of Snow White written in Braille. Overall,
these were great services for the blind.
BUILDING CONSTRUCTION AND REPAIR
While the Indiana State Library did not use any WPA
money for building construction or repair, the use of
WPA funds (usually in the form of labor) to help
libraries was evident throughout Indiana. Building
projects included the following:
·
Clinton - interior completely refinished and furniture restored
·
Ohio River Flood - Libraries in Aurora,
Jeffersonville, Lawrenceville, and New Albany
furnished with materials and labor to get facilities
back in “good condition.”
·
New Library Buildings - Cambridge City &
Winklepleck Memorial (Odon). WPA provided
greater part of library in the construction of both
facilities.
·
Kokomo - Library branch at Highland Park is also
used as recreation center (model airplane club,
table tennis, checkers, and other “quiet” games)
·
Kokomo - Public library holds open house (May 13,
1937) upon successful completion of its rehabilita
tion and redecoration project. Workers provided
by WPA.
·
Jeffersonville - by 1938, library has been re-opened
to public with flood damage reconditioning work
by the WPA.
·
Bluffton - in coordination with Tri Kappa sorority,
the library is being redecorated. WPA is overseeing
the cleaning aspect of project.
BOOK REPAIR
9,504 books had been repaired at the Indiana State
Library by 1939. The mending process combined the
techniques using onion skin paper, Japanese tissue,
mending paper (for filling out margins and corners),
cambric reinforcement, cleaning with erasers and
25
vinegar solution, and sandpapering. All books were
plated, pocketed, stamped, marked, and shellacked.
2,214 pamphlets were mended, along with magazines,
sheet music, and manuscripts prepared for circulation.
Probably the biggest effort came in the Public Documents section where within one and a half years 8,000
volumes — the entire collection — were reconditioned.
Dodge pick-up. Equipped with shelving to
accommodate 1500-2000 volumes. Branch was out
five days a week. Four staff members divided the
work on the trailer. During winter, when daily
circulation reached about 500, a WPA worker
assisted.
·
New Castle - in cooperation with WPA State-Wide
Library project, a new service to Henry County not
already having library service was created. A
bookmobile, carrying 2,000 volumes was scheduled
to supply books to all schools and communities
previously unserved. A member of the industrial
arts department of New Castle High School specially designed the bookmobile.
·
Valparaiso - WPA State-wide library project in Porter
County established stations in nine townships
formerly without library service. 3,500 books were
circulated, with an estimate that 6,000 would soon
be available.
·
Rockville Public Library - with support from the
WPA State-Wide Library Project, librarian Maye
Jessup organized a county demonstration in Parke
County. From this, the county supported a library
tax rate to fund branch and station services. While
just in an early stage, it was reported that the
county library board and Mrs. Jessup studied the
impact of this type of new service.
Marguerite H. Anderson, then State Supervisor of
the WPA State-Wide Library Project explained that “The
project is saving thousands of books for further use by
the repairs given. Book collections which were once
grimy and repellent looking are now clean and attractive due to the cleaning on the project.”
CATALOGING
There are very few reports on cataloging projects.
What was reported included statistical reports from the
Cataloging Division at the Indiana State Library. Three
workers were assigned to this project. While not
librarians, these individuals were given a summer
training course at the State Library. With this training,
the workers were considered to have training equivalent to many catalogers throughout the state, and they
performed simple cataloguing and classification under
the supervision of a professional librarian. The Catalog
Division of the Indiana State Library did lend some
assistance to state-wide cataloging projects in 1940.
BOOKMOBILES AND EXTENSION SERVICES
With the help of WPA funds:
·
·
The Fort Wayne and Allen County Public Library
added a new bookmobile in January (1937) for use
in rural book distribution. The body of the auto
mobile, like the one being used in the city, was
built by WPA labor. The truck served all consoli
dated schools in the county except those served by
a branch library. It also distributed books to paro
chial schools and during the summer to many
villages in the county.
Indianapolis - New service created (November 2,
1939) for individuals not within walking distance
of main branch. Books were sent for distribution
to a central neighborhood location named the
Library Extension Service. Schools, fire stations,
businesses, and factories used the extension
service. Books were sent free of charge.
·
Logansport & Cass County - “trailer” library pur
chased in 1937 that visited schools and small towns
(carrying 1,200 books & magazines). Trained
librarian was in charge with assistance from WPA
worker.
·
Bluffton and Wells County - trailer branch consisted
of a specially built semi-trailer pulled by a half-ton
26
Whereas this was a service with widespread impact,
there was an indication in 1940 that the services had
not spread as rapidly as expected. This was due to
changes at the administrative level and to vacancies at
the local level of the State-Wide Library Project. In
addition, it was difficult to generate local funding for
bookmobile or library extension services.
CLERICAL HELP
The Indiana State Library reported that among the
seven levels of stacks at the State Library, WPA workers
helped serve as clerks, typist, and dusters. They were
engaged in shelf reading, checking, and card indexing
in an effort to keep the stacks in proper working order.
This worked helped to run the library efficiently. Such
help could not have been hired without WPA funding.
CONCLUSIONS
It is clear from the voluminous evidence found in
various sources that the funds from the WPA coordinated through the State-Wide Library Project had a
huge impact on library service during the Depression.
While there was concern about possible misuse of WPA
funds at a national level, there was no evidence of this
in the Indiana program. Librarian Ethel McCullough in
her 1935 annual report for the Evansville Public Library
summarized this sentiment when she stated “Almost
Indiana Libraries, Volume 20 Number 1
without exception each person has turned out an
honest day’s labor. Without this help the system would
have been hopelessly handicapped and the service
would have fallen short of the year’s achievements.”
While the WPA was created to help the country out
of the Depression by training individuals for employment, creating jobs, and providing income for the
unemployed and their families, it also benefited
Indiana Libraries, improved services, and laid the
ground work for future federal library assistance.
WORKS CITED
1 James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt the Lion and
the Fox (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1956),
267, 242. John Mack Faragher, Mari Jo Buhle, Daniel
Czitrom, Susan H. Armitage, Out of Many; A History of
The American People, (Edgewood Cliffs, New Jersey:
Prentice Hall, 1994), 769. “Final Report of Works
Projects Administration,” (Washington: Federal Government Printing, 1943). Jessup Benjamin L. “The Career
of Paul V. McNutt” (Ph.D. diss., Kent State University,
1995), 176-177, 287. Arthur M Schlesinger Jr., The
Politics of Upheaval (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1960),
345-350. World Almanac, 2000 Edition, (Mahamah,
New Jersey, Primeade Reference, 1999), 385.
2
Jessup, 53.
3 Jessup, 52, 287. Burns, 242, 367. Faragher et al,
762, 763. Arthur Schlesinger, The Coming of the New
Deal (Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin, 1958), 287-288,
337-341.
4 Faragher et al, 767. Jessup, 52-54. Schlesinger, The
Coming of the New Deal, page 277-278.
5
Burns, 267. Faragher et al, 776.
15 Chapman, Edward A. (April-June, 1938). Proposed
WPA State-Wide Project. Library Occurrent, Volume 12,
Number 10, page 326.
16 Anderson, Marguerite H. (July-September, 1939).
W.P.A. State-Wide Library Project in Indiana. Library
Occurrent, Volume 13, Number 3, pages 75-77.
17 Anderson, Marguerite H. (October-December,
1939). W.P.A. State-Wide Library Project. Library
Occurrent, Volume 13, Number 4, pages 103.
18 McDermott, Wayne. (January-March, 1942). WPA
State-Wide Library Project. Library Occurrent, Volume
14, Number 1, pages 15-16.
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid, page 15.
22 Ibid.
23 W.P.A. Projects in the Indiana State Library: The
State-Wide Library Project. Typewritten document, four
pages, Catalogued as Ip 33.1, no. 37.
24 News Notes from Indiana Libraries. (OctoberDecember, 1938). Library Occurrent, Volume 12,
Number 12, page 388.
25 W.P.A. Projects in the Indiana State Library: The
State-Wide Library Project. Typewritten document, four
pages, Catalogued as Ip 33.1, no. 37.
26 Indianapolis Star, 21 July, 1935, 5.
27 Indiana State Library Annual Report. 1942, page
808.
28 Ibid.
29 Indiana State Library Annual Report. 1938, page
272.
6 Stanford, Edward Barrett. Library Extension Under
the WPA: An Appraisal of an Experiment in Federal Aid.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944.
30 News Notes From Indiana Libraries. (July-September, 1939). Library Occurrent, Volume 13, Number 3,
page 88.
7
Ibid. p. 12.
8
Ibid. p. 12.
31 McDermott, Philip Wayne. (July-September, 1940).
WPA Newspaper Indexing Project. Library Occurrent,
Volume 13, Number 7, page 229.
9 Corrington, Gill. “The Civil Works Administration,”
Municipal Yearbook 1937, Chicago: International City
Managers Association, 1937, p. 20. As cited in Stanford,
p. 31.
10 Stanford, pp. 32-33.
11 Ibid. pp. 33-39.
12 Ibid. p. 160.
13 Ibid. p. 257
14 Ibid. pp. 257-258.
Indiana Libraries, Volume 20 Number 1
32 W.P.A. Projects in the Indiana State Library: The
State-Wide Library Project. Typewritten document, four
pages, Catalogued as Ip 33.1, no. 37.
33 Indiana State Library Annual Report. 1939, page
404.
34 W.P.A. Projects in the Indiana State Library: The
State-Wide Library Project. Typewritten document, four
pages, Catalogued as Ip 33.1, no. 37.
35 News Notes From Indiana Libraries. (JanuaryMarch, 1937). Library Occurrent, Volume 12, Number 5,
27
page 138
36 Two Openings: Talking Book Records (JulySeptember, 1938). Library Occurrent, Volume 12,
Number 11, page 356.
53 News Notes From Indiana. (April-June, 1941).
Library Occurrent, Volume 13, Number 10, page 320.
54 County Libraries. (April-June, 1941). Library
Occurrent, Volume 13, Number 10, page 325.
37 News Notes From Indiana Libraries. (January-March,
1936). Library Occurrent, Volume 12, Number 1, page
18.
55 W.P.A. Projects in the Indiana State Library: The
State-Wide Library Project. Typewritten document, four
pages, Catalogued as Ip 33.1, no. 37.
38 Chapman, Edward A. (January-March, 1937).
Indiana Libraries Damaged by Ohio River Flood,
Library Occurrent, Volume 12, Number 5, page 124.
56 News Notes From Indiana Libraries. (April-June
1936). Library Occurrent, Volume 12, Number 2, page
31.
39 Warren, Hazel B. (January-March, 1937). New
Library Buildings. Library Occurrent, Volume 12,
Number 5, page 128.
40 News Notes From Indiana Libraries. (JanuaryMarch, 1937). Library Occurrent, Volume 12, Number 5.
41 News Notes From Indiana Libraries. (July-September, 1937). Library Occurrent, Volume 12, Number 7,
page 212.
This article had its genesis as a research project for
the Indiana University School of Library and Information Science’s L517: History of Libraries. The authors
were students in the course taught by Dolores Hoyt in
Indianapolis during the 2000 Spring Semester.
42 News Notes From Indiana Libraries. (January-March,
1938). Library Occurrent, Volume 12, Number 9, page
298.
43 News Notes From Indiana Libraries. (January-March,
1939). Library Occurrent, Volume 13, Number 1, page
28.
44 W.P.A. Projects in the Indiana State Library: The
State-Wide Library Project. Typewritten document, four
pages, Catalogued as Ip 33.1, no. 37.
45 Anderson, Marguerite H. (July-September, 1939).
W.P.A. State-Wide Library Project in Indiana. Library
Occurrent, Volume 13, Number 3, pages 76.
46 Anderson, Marguerite H. (July-September, 1939).
W.P.A. State-Wide Library Project in Indiana. Library
Occurrent, Volume 13, Number 3, pages 75-77.
47 Indiana State Library Annual Report. 1940, page 4.
48 News Notes From Indiana Libraries. (January-March,
1938). Library Occurrent, Volume 12, Number 9, page
297.
49 News Notes From Indiana Libraries. (January-March,
1939). Library Occurrent, Volume 13, Number 1, page
30.
50 County Library Service: Logansport and Cass
County. (April-June, 1941). Library Occurrent, Volume
13, Number 10, page 297.
51 County Library Service: Bluffton and Wells County.
(April-June, 1941). Library Occurrent, Volume 13,
Number 10, page 307.
52 News Notes From Indiana. (April-June, 1941).
Library Occurrent, Volume 13, Number 10, page 319.
28
Indiana Libraries, Volume 20 Number 1